vanilla
by rainshadow effect
Summary: Vanilla, Kagami realises, is an acquired taste.


"Do you survive on that? I haven't seen you consume anything else," Kagami asks, eyebrows furrowing in half-concern, half-annoyance.

Obnoxiously long slurping noise later, Kuroko responds matter-of-factly, "It's really good."

Kagami has never had a thing for sweet food. Vanilla has always been a foreign word to him. He never did like it, nor did he hate it. He thinks that he'll never understand.

Meanwhile, Kuroko stares at him, deadpan. Kagami cannot put a finger to him.

He shrugs it off and resumes gobbling down his fifth beef burger.

* * *

"And that arsehole of an opponent simply took my ball," the redhead on fire rants endlessly, his arms flailing as the team sits at a long table at Maji Burger after a practice match with a nearby school.

He forgets that he is ranting to a bunch of seniors, inclusive of their strict captain and feisty female coach. Perhaps rage has consumed him, he drops the formal language.

The bunch of seniors look at each other blankly. They are dead tired and need some peace and quiet. They tell him to calm down and remind him that they had won the match after all. They also want to smack him upside down for the ruckus, but they have close to no energy remaining.

Just as they contemplate how to shut the burning chilli up, they notice that the chattering has stopped.

They look up, only to see Kuroko, who places a cold, condensation-laced cup onto Kagami's cheek, causing him to produce a small gasp, before Kuroko removes it and places the straw into Kagami's mouth, now shut. In shock, Kagami accidentally sucks a bit of the shake, almost choking.

"Kagami-kun, please calm down and quieten for a bit."

The seniors inwardly applaud Kuroko for his ingenuity. As well as for the fact that he is the only one who can pull this off with a perfect poker face.

Meanwhile, Kagami realises while coughing that there is almost a tang to the taste of vanilla. Not flowery nor like citrus, the taste is one of a kind.

Kagami does not realise it yet, but it takes him by storm.

* * *

It is raining, and Kuroko is nowhere to be seen. While this would usually be far from surprising as a daily occurence, the fact that the entire basketball team is searching for him and calling out for him does make the whole incident seem unsettling.

Kagami has a revelation. He runs to the basketball court a few blocks behind their usual Maji Burger outlet. When they first met there, Kuroko swore to make him Number One in Japan.

They've lost the match with Rakuzan, who now yet again reigns the spot of Number One.

He bets that Kuroko is there, wallowing in self-pity, and boy is he right, as he sees Kuroko laying in the middle of the court. In the rain. Not a light drizzle, but a torrential downpour.

And for once Kagami is level-headed - he does not rush there and smack Kuroko on the head for being the idiot this time. Instead, he silently watches from afar, and decides on the best thing to do.

Five minutes later, the fierce tumult of the thunderstorm reduces to a slightly wistful, comforting drizzle. He returns to the basketball court, vanilla shake in hand. He walks over to Kuroko and squats, vicious tang of lactic acid stinging his calves, and finds on closer look that Kuroko's eyes are lidded viciously shut, his face wet from water droplets and probably tears.

"Get up and drink your vanilla shake." Kagami's voice deep like thunder, gentle aftertaste of a passing storm. Kuroko opens his eyes with a start, and Kagami sees that they are shimmering. The pale blue almost transparent, he almost feels like he can see the ripples on them as if a freshwater lake, distorting momentary specks of grey reflected from dark clouds overhead.

And all of a sudden, Kagami feels a push backwards, he nearly falls over and spills the drink, but manages to hold it enough. Kuroko's head is in his chest and his arms around his waist, barely long enough to encircle but in a desperate grip nonetheless. At this point of time they are both drenched, and Kagami smells the humidity of rain and the surroundings in Kuroko's hair, pale blue shade a few notches darker and without the usual buoyancy. He also smells the familiar smell that is Kuroko, much more distinct and overwhelming now that he is not a relatively safe distance beside him, but after all, in his arms.

Kagami manages to slowly place the drink onto the floor, and instinctively puts one hand onto the smaller man's back and one in his wet hair, pushing him further into his shirt. He doesn't care at this point, because he knows.

"I am really sorry." It came out more like a sob. Kagami's heart aches at the sheer sound of it, and mentally curses.

"What for? We all did our best, didn't we?" Kagami almost whispers in reply.

Kagami realises that his heart is throbbing but not in a bad way. He feels warm despite the rain and he can't put a finger to it. He thinks he may have fallen ill, but fears that he has fallen to cupid's arrow. He is afraid, but he wills these thoughts away for now.

"You promised to make me the best in Japan, didn't you? I'm waiting for you to fulfill that promise, you know?"

Finally he manages to make Kuroko smile, still slightly teary but the glint of vitality and determination slowly creeping back into his eyes, his mouth curved up in a genuine smile. Kagami skips a heartbeat.

It is already evening and the sunset casts an orange glow onto the surroundings, and the malevolent dark clouds are nowhere to be seen. It would have been beautiful except Kagami suddenly realises that the entire team is still on panic mode, wondering where the heck Kuroko is. They may even have called the cops by now. Kagami hurriedly drags Kuroko up and pushes the vanilla shake into his hands.

"Drink this as you run, the seniors are still looking for you!"

"Let's share it."

"...Fine, let's just run first!"

As the two of them run in the subsiding evening rain, Kagami takes a sip.

Vanilla always leaves a sweet aftertaste.

He likes it more and more.

* * *

Ten minutes to noon, Kagami observes as he quickly and nervously glances down at his watch.

Five minutes later, he's out of the glass door with a bag of burgers in his left hand and a vanilla shake in his right, footsteps a tad hurried, bells atop the door clanging as if to portray his agitation.

_Thank goodness_, he breathes as he sits himself on a bench beside a large coniferous tree in the neighborhood park. He tosses the bag of burgers beside him and gently places the vanilla shake on the small table beside. Unlike burgers, this drink is cumbersome, almost fragile in comparison. He takes care not to spill it.

Five minutes past noon. Kagami is restless and cannot help but glance about nervously. Surely he couldn't have gotten lost. His dual eyebrows furrow at sharp angles, a largely accurate indicator of the extent of his frustration.

At twelve fifteen he arrives, running. At long last. Kagami stands up, egged by a mixture of nerves, irritation and relief. The blue-haired one huffs and takes a moment to catch his breath before he apologizes.

"Sorry for being late. I got lost along the way." Kuroko's face is dusted cherry pink. Understandable, considering he ran almost a whole kilometer to reach the location.

"Don't worry about it," Kagami attempts to reply without looking directly at Kuroko's eyes. They're both flushing red at this point. Kagami claims it's the heat. He forgets it's actually in the middle of winter.

Halfway through Kagami's third burger, Kuroko asks, "Why did you ask to meet, and of all places, at the park?"

Kagami nearly chokes.

"N..no special reason. Felt like a change of environment." He manages to spit out at some point.

Kagami is right - they've been having their meals at the same Maji Burger outlet almost everyday of the week for almost four years now. For as long as they've met. For as long as they've been friends and partners. It is reasonable to seek a change.

And change there will be.

"Happy Birthday, Kuroko." Kagami barely manages to keep the composure in his voice as he reaches out to grab Kuroko's hand. He smoothly removes a chain from his pocket and pries open Kuroko's fingers to place it into.

Kagami's face is burning but at least he manages to look him in the eye. And that's when he notices a tinge of surprise in the pale blue eyes, a rare sight.

Kuroko finds a ring hanging from the chain. It is silver and has half a heart engraved on it.

"I like you, Kuroko." Kagami raises his own chain from his collarbones to reveal the other half of the heart.

A brief silence, but it seems like forever.

Kuroko opens his mouth to speak again, his expression deadpan.

"Kagami-kun, are you asking for my hand in marriage?"

As if the tiger could go any redder, he does. And he splutters out in fright at the grasp of a mere mouse.

"No, not so soon! What I meant was, will you go out with me?"

Yet another brief silence.

This time, Kuroko bubbles up with mirth. He laughs. Another rare sight.

"Yes, of course. Took you four years to ask."

Kuroko is smiling in his arms and the realization infiltrates Kagami like an arrow right through his fiercely throbbing heart. It makes him feel even more _alive_, blood coursing through his veins surging and screaming at him, this is it, _this is it_. This is_ love._ For a moment, he is so dizzy with joy and sheer excitement, he thinks he is going to faint, but he would never, for the love of basketball, miss this moment. He pinches his arm with trembling, numb fingertips and it hits him again. _Everything is real._

Kagami wants to cry, and he grins like the idiot he is.

Snow the colour of milky white vanilla shakes descends, blanketing the two with more warmth each could ever expect on a chilly winter day like this.

Vanilla, Kagami finds, is lightly sweet and subtlely fragrant, but not sickeningly so.

* * *

The doorbell rings at 11 o' clock in the morning, and Kagami's heart begins to flutter like that of a maiden in love. Kagami cringes in realization and mentally punches himself.

Kuroko is nothing less than plain adorable - tufts of blue hair sticking in arbitrary directions, traces of sleep still lingering in his eyes, dressed comfortably in a striped sweatshirt and track pants. Kagami gets nervous, but realises that it is futile because he _should get used to this_. He will in time.

They relax on the cushy maroon sofa Kagami owns, initially cuddling pillows, but soon they toss those out and settle for each other.

Kuroko leans on Kagami's shoulder, his hair slightly tickling Kagami's chin. His hair smells soft and of lavender, just like an infant's. Just like him to use feminine shampoo, as opposed to Kagami's menthol. The light blue strands catch the rays of late morning sunlight from the window, appearing almost translucent. Kagami pulls him closer by the shoulder.

An hour later Kuroko's stomach growls and Kagami realises that neither of them have had lunch. "Would you like anything to eat?"

"Just a vanilla milkshake will do, thank you."

"How is that enough?! What will I do if you faint or something?" Kagami insists that the man falls severely short of dietary requirements and despite protests, proceeds to place six frozen meat patties onto the pan, one for Kuroko and five for himself.

As the patties heat up, Kagami begins to whip up a vanilla milkshake. He tosses vanilla ice cream, vanilla essence and warm milk into the blender. How Kagami has all the ingredients ready in his kitchen is a cause of wonder at first glance - he never drinks those. It's almost ironic how Kagami uses quality ingredients for something he doesn't drink in stark contrast to the convenience of instant burgers. Kuroko had mentioned one day how atrocious the vanilla shake premix from the supermart tastes.

Kuroko takes a sip out of his shake and his recent habit of unwittingly getting whipped cream all over his upper lip acts up. The sight is hilarious and nonetheless adorable and the fact that Kuroko does not realise it (or simply ignores it) spurs a little _something_ (frustration? agitation? amusement?) in Kagami. He leans forward to lick it off and their lips brush. By now Kagami's head is an overly ripe tomato and he tries to escape the embarrassment but finds that he can't as Kuroko leans in to capture his lips whole.

When they've had their fill and finally break away, Kagami opens his eyes only to stare into blue ones filled with not emotionlessness but mirth and the slight hint of a smirk, and Kuroko breathes, "Took you long enough to kiss me."

Sometimes, the sheer realization that he has fallen for a silently cunning man makes him laugh and smile, not wistfully, regretfully nor despairingly. He figures it must be bliss, really.

He takes another sip. It's not as delicious from the cup.

* * *

It's the middle of the night and Kagami sits on his front porch fumbling with the lid of his drink cup.

He picks up his donut and sticks his index finger into the donut hole, twirling it around.

He's always wondered about the purpose of the hole in the donut. Since donuts do come in complete circles, what was the purpose of keeping the donuts with the holes? Why not wipe them off existence?

Kagami has a peeve about all things incomplete and pointless. Something about the little gap from completion leaves him irritated and empty.

A pity the complete donuts sold out earlier, so poor Kagami had to settle for donuts with donut holes.

Like the donut hole, something feels missing.

He picks up his phone (and courage) and dials. The wretched dial tone tempts and agitates his anticipation and wavers his courage and after an excruciating fifteen seconds, the receiver picks up.

"Hey."

"Hello, Kagami-kun. Is anything the matter? Since you already called two hours ago, I never expected you to call till tomorrow."

"...Sorry about that. Are you busy at the moment?"

"Nope. On the contrary, shouldn't you be sleeping? It's 2 a.m. over there."

"I can't sleep, and that's sort of why I called. Sorry, I should probably hang up now."

"Wait, Kagami-kun, it's okay to call to just chat. Anything on your mind?"

"Yeah...there's a lot on my mind, but I can't figure out what it is, and my mind is kind of blank."

"I see. So what are you occupying yourself with at the moment?"

"Nothing much, just eating some food and staring at the stars."

"What are you eating? I'm eating too."

"I'm having a donut with a hole and a vanilla shake."

"A vanilla shake? You never liked sweet things, Kagami-kun."

"W..What, I just felt like drinking it. But I have to say that their vanilla shakes really suck here. Even Maji Burger's are better, and Maji Burger's can't even compare to mine."

"Ha-ha, I'm not sure about yours surpassing Maji Burger's."

"Of course they surpass Maji Burger's!"

"I'm having vanilla shake too, but I'm drinking the instant mix one and it tastes really bad as well. Kagami-kun's is definitely better than the instant mix."

"So we're drinking horrible shake together, hahaha."

"Haha."

There was a moment's pause before Kagami broke the silence with a yawn.

"I think I'm getting a little sleepy now. So I'd better go to sleep, huh? Still have to meet Alex and Himuro tomorrow."

"Goodnight, Kagami-kun."

"...You know one thing?"

"Yes?"

"...I really miss you. At least I think it must be the case, or else I probably wouldn't be drinking something like this."

"...Me too."

"Alright, goodnight. I'll call you tomorrow. See you soon."

"See you soon."

Kagami falls asleep easily, and dreams of kissing Kuroko.

* * *

_Thank you for reading! Happy (very) belated Birthday Kurokocchi dear!_


End file.
